Rath's Tale
by Bloodredalchemist
Summary: FE7. Stuck in a snowstorm on the plains of Sacae, Lyn and Guy listen to the story of Rath's childhood and his adventures from the day he left his tribe, to the day he met Lyn again.
1. Chapter 1

**What with my miraculous return from the dead... I started playing Fire Emblem: Rekka no Ken (a.k.a Fire Emblem 7 or just plain Fire Emblem) again, and got addicted...mainly after photobucketing the official art. It is SOOO pretty. Anyway...what with me loving to write... I thought about some of the characters and their pasts and what-not...and then got around to playing Fire Emblem: Fuuin no Tsurugi (Fire Emblem 6. The one with Roy in it) and saw Sue and Shinn, Clarine and Klein, Fir, Lugh and Rei, Hugh... the children of the FE7 people...and found myself drawn mostly towards Rath. He is not mentioned at all as Sue's father, though everyone knows it. (Sue is the granddaughter of Dayan, the Silver Wolf. Rath is the only child of the Silver Wolf. Go figure. ) I would have loved to write something for Canas, but... the story: 'Shadows Under the Oak Tree' by someone who's pen name eludes me, was way out of my league of writing so... I'd rather not disgrace myself writing something about Canas. Raven became out of the question, due to 'Zornhut'... but Rath was fair game! And hey, he gets married to Lyn in the end. So... I hope you enjoy this... **

**Note: I do not own Fire Emblem. Nintendo does. And if I did own Fire Emblem, Roy and Eliwood wouldn't suck so much. And the art for Fuuin no Tsurugi would be much nicer... oh and Rutger would actually get all of those 89 critical hits. **

**I've defaulted for 'Mark' as the tactician's name. **

* * *

The sun was setting and it was growing cold. A strong wind blew through the tall grasses. Combined with the golden shine of the twilight, the plains seemed a veritable sea of fire.

"It's beautiful," whispered the young woman stopping in her tracks. Her two companions, a tall, serious-looking, young archer and the younger swordsman stopped a few steps behind her.

"It's good to be back home!" sighed the swordsman stretching.

"Hey Rath! Why don't we camp here for the night?" said the boy eagerly.

The archer remained silent; instead, he merely began to unpack their survival gear from their one horse.

The young woman used a hand to hide her laughter as the braided boy began to grumble his discontent about acknowledgements, trees, rangers and old men.

Lyn of the Lorca tribe stared out at the wide open plains in front of her. She hadn't been back here in so long…It was a nostalgic feeling.

She heard the boy call her name, and she rushed to help set up their camp.

By the time they had set up their small hut-like tent, night had already fallen and the bitter cold of winter had settled in as well.

The three of them sat around within their shelter, crowded around a warm fire, sharing a pot of stewed rabbit.

"You're amazing Rath!" exclaimed the boy, his mouth half full of food. "Where'd you learn to cook like this?"

"Guy! Don't talk with your mouth full!" admonished the young woman kindly.

The boy swallowed guiltily.

"Sorry Lady Lyndis…" said the young swordsman blushing. She really could sound like his mother sometimes…

"I've told you hundreds of times already! Here, I'm not Lyndis, or Lady Lyndis. On the plains I'm just plain Lyn," scolded the girl playfully.

Guy nodded and returned to his soup, muttering clearly to himself.

"You've never had Kent and Sain chasing after you for 'lack of respect…'"

Lyndis, or Lyn, chose to ignore that comment, and instead, helped herself to seconds of the stew.

"Guy does have a point though," she said as she took a bite. "Rath, this is delicious!"

The nomad archer merely closed his eyes in acknowledgement that he'd heard the comment.

Lyn gave Guy a look of world-weariness. "Are all Kutolah men like this?" she asked.

"Not true!!" exclaimed Guy, coughing on a mouthful of hot stew. "I'm not like that!"

Lyn smiled. "Of course."

"AH!! You just thought otherwise, didn't you!!" shouted the plainsman pointing accusingly at the Lady of Caelin.

"Of course not!" she said, with feigned hurt, when in reality she was struggling not to laugh.

Guy was such a funny young man. He was, at the most, only fifteen-years-old, and had seen a great many terrible things, yet still, he managed to keep that childish aspect of himself that was ever so endearing.

Finally, Lyn could no longer contain her mirth and burst out laughing.

He really was so funny! Just like the little brother she never had. The idea that one of the fastest and most skilled swordsmen she'd ever seen was still half-a-child!

"ARRGGH!!" growled Guy in frustration, standing up. "If you weren't a girl, I'd challenge you to a duel!!" he shouted pointing at her.

Lyn forced herself to stop laughing and adopt a look of utmost seriousness.

"What? Afraid you'll lose to a girl?" she asked mockingly.

Guy stomped his foot and shook his head. Just like any six-year-old.

"Master Karel taught me! I can't lose!!"

_That's right…_thought Lyn. During their journey through Elibe with Eliwood, they'd come upon the world's most feared sword master, Karel the Sword Demon. Thankfully on their side, the dark-haired mad-man from Sacae had, after a while, warmed up to and began giving lessons to the young Kutolah boy…though they'd apparently stopped after Karel threatened to kill Guy if he learned anymore.

Lyn didn't know the true extent of the boy's skills. She'd mainly been irritated at the early lesson times, during which there was far too much shouting at the crack of dawn.

She supposed that Mark had known Guy's potential…The tactician had been amazing. Though hardly remarkable in terms of looks, the brown-haired youth had eagle-like vision for talent and the fastest mind in Elibe. He also…had a rather blunt streak. Especially in his attitude towards those he saw as…weak. In fact, his bluntness about one's skills was almost at par with Karel's disregard for anyone weaker than himself, and thus, not worth killing.

For example, before they'd gone to Laus, Mark had put up with Serra's attitude and quirks to have a healer on the front lines. But as soon as Priscilla and her skills with magic staves became apparent, the tactician had shipped Serra to the back lines, much to the cleric's displeasure.

In comparison to his dealings with Marcus and General Wallace, Serra's temper tantrum and subsequent argument was nothing.

When the two older men had confronted the tactician about their positions near the rear, far away from both Lords Eliwood and Hector, and Lyn, herself; Mark simply up and told them that they were 'useless, and weak.' When they'd begun to protest violently, Mark, much to Canas's despair had slammed one of the shaman's heavy books on crypto-paleontology over their heads, ending the dispute…for a while.

After that General Wallace didn't talk to him or Lyn for a whole week, and Marcus tried to get Lord Eliwood to help him convince the tactician…Eventually resulting in an all-out shouting match, which Lord Pent had to eventually break up with a spectacular Thunder spell.

Suddenly the entire tent began to shake.

"By Mother Earth and Father Sky!" exclaimed Lyn peering outside.

"Snow?!? Here?!? Now??!" shouted Guy in shock. "Why's it snowing!!?"

"It's winter…" said Rath softly by the fire. The other two Sacaeans turned towards the ranger.

"We should wait for the storm to pass," he said, stirring the pot and adding more lumber to the fire.

Slowly the other two sat down as well.

They sat in silence for about two hours, listening to the wind howl, and the tent shake, until Guy, who had been fidgeting all the while, finally stood up.

"I'm going to sleep!!" he declared just as Lyn said:

"Let's play a game."

The young swordsman looked at her.

"Is this one of those stupid girl games?" he asked suspiciously.

The forest green-haired plains woman shook her head.

"No this is one of Mark's games."

Guy nodded unsurely.

The fifteen-year old myrmidon had great respect for the tactician…even though he thought the other boy half-mad sometimes.

"We sit in a circle, and tell a story about ourselves," explained Lyn. "But if someone lies, and everyone finds out, they have to do a dare."

"That IS a stupid girl game! Liar!!" shouted Guy accusingly. "Mark never made a game like that!!"

"Yes he did," said Lyn. "He made us all sit in a circle and talk about ourselves. Don't you remember?"

Guy shook his head. He didn't…

"Oh right!" said Lyn, tapping her palm with a fist, in realization. "That was when you had gotten lost and Rath had disappeared to go find you…"

"S-Shut up!!" he yelled blushing furiously. He remembered now…He'd run off when he saw everyone staring at him. On top of that he'd showed up at a rather awkward moment. Pent and Louise had been talking about themselves. The mage general of Etruria and his wife had been staring into each other's eyes and…yeah, it had been awkward…

"Come to think of it…Rath, Guy…you're both part of the Kutolah Tribe…How is that you don't know each other?" asked Lyn.

"Don't change the subject!!" shouted Guy, before sitting down. "Yeah, she's right. I never saw you before until I joined up…though I heard that the Chief had a son called Rath…" said the boy, looking at the silent archer critically.

Lyn gave Guy an incredulous look before turning back to the archer.

"So Rath, who are you?" asked Lyn.

The archer was silent, merely staring into the flames.

"I'm sure you told Mark, cause he always had this smug look on his face when I asked about…" started Guy.

"Priscilla?" smiled Lyn, unable to keep it away from her face.

"Yeah! I mean no! NO!!" exclaimed the green-haired boy indignantly, blushing furiously.

"I asked Mark about Rath!! P-Priscilla has nothing to do with this!!"

Lyn had to laugh. Guy had developed a crush on the pretty red-haired troubadour, and everyone had known about it. He'd asked everyone in the camp about her, and had the utmost misfortune of having to explain to Raven why he was asking about her.

Unfortunately for Guy, Priscilla turned out to be in love with Heath and blissfully unaware of Guy's affections for her. All in all, it turned out better for the Sacaean swordsman. Having Raven as a brother-in-law might not have been the greatest thing ever.

"Mark knew about everyone…" said Rath finally. "He listened. Never asked questions, didn't judge…just…listened…"

It dawned on Lyn that Rath had gone to Mark to confide his past and problems with the tactician…a practice that Lyn and many of the others had done themselves. There was probably a lot of things the tactician knew about everyone…

Though Mark had never asked anyone to confide in him, they just _did_.

In comparison to Mark's passive listening, Lyn and Guy were just being nosy about this.

Rath was still staring into the fire when he spoke again.

"The storm will take a while to bow over…and before we reach the tribe…it's best that you know…" he said softly.

"I am Rath of the Kutolah. Son of Dayan, the Silver Wolf," he said in his quiet deep voice, looking up at them.

"You're the Chief's son?!?! The one who disappeared…" started Guy flustered.

"I was exiled," continued the normally silent archer, going right over whatever Guy was saying.

"There was a prophecy, and I was exiled…" he said growing silent.

"What kind of prophecy?" asked Lyn, encouraging him to go on.

"That a great danger was coming, and I'd be able to help stop it."

"But…that makes no sense…" said Guy, confused. Rath shrugged at that.

"At the time I was less than four, without even the means to survive. I wandered, not knowing right from left ...The people of other tribes laughed and ridiculed me."

"What happened out there?" asked the girl, interested.

"It's a long story…"

"And you were never much of a talker," she finished, smiling at the archer. "We've got time. Tell us Rath…"

"…I had just turned four and a diviner had come to the tribe…"

8.8.8

The little boy peered around his father, to see where the horse was heading. He was a serious-looking little boy, with sharp piercing eyes, and the dark-green hair of the people of Sacae.

"Father, where are we going?" he asked quietly. When there was no response, he repeated his question.

"Father? Where are we going? Why have we gone so far from the camp?" he said, louder this time.

The horse drew to a halt, and the boy's father dismounted, helping his four-year old son down as well.

He set the boy down on the plains of Sacae.

"Rath, from this day forth, you are no longer of the Kutolah," said the man seriously.

"What? Father..?" said the child confused.

"You are no longer Rath of the Kutolah. From now on, you are just Rath of Sacae."

"No!" said the little boy confused and angry. "I'm Rath of the Kutolah, son of the great Silver Wolf and going to be chief!!" he said, repeating what his father and mother had told him many times before.

Dayan, the Silver Wolf shook his head sadly.

"No Rath…you have a different fate in store for you…"

The little boy looked at his father with his piercing dark-green eyes.

"To stop the burning…" he said softly, remembering the words of the mysterious diviner the previous night.

"So you understand…" sighed his father with relief.

"NO!" shouted Rath shaking his head, and covering his ears, as if to block out any words his father said.

"I don't understand!!" he said. "I don't want to leave!!"

His father crouched down to his son's level and stared at him for a long moment, before standing up.

"Come back when you're a hero…" said his father, mounting his horse and riding away.

The boy stood in shock for a moment. It took only a few moments for his child's mind to understand his abandonment.

"F-FATHER!!!!!!!" he screamed after the rapidly disappearing rider, his childish voice echoing throughout the vast and empty plains of Sacae.

* * *

**Liked it? If so, review. Please? Reviews do make me feel better, and give me incentive...especially if the fic is one of my better written ones...like this one.**


	2. Chapter 2

**So...I forgot to mention that for this fic, one should assume A Support and Ending between Lyn and Rath. Aka: Lyn goes with Rath back to Sacae, and becomes Sue's mother. For Guy...A Support with Karel... as in, he gets named the 'Saint of Swords' and then Karel kills him...when they meet one year later to see who's better... Which is what I assume happened, since in FE6, Karel, not Guy is the Saint of Swords. (Reference: A support: Noah / Karel)**

** Disclaimer: I do not own Fire Emblem, Nintendo does. **

* * *

Guy and Lyn stared at Rath in silence, a combination of astonishment, pity, and horror written on their faces.

"Whoa…" said Guy after a long moment. "Whoa!!!"

"That's…that's terrible!!" said Lyn horrified. "What kind of father just…abandons his son out there in the plains, alone and unable to defend themselves??" she said angrily.

"A chieftain does what is right for the tribe…" said Rath quietly.

"Yeah…Chief always said stuff like that…but…what he did to you…" said Guy quietly.

"Was in the tribe's best interest," finished Rath. The tone of voice said clearly that he would brook no arguments on the matter.

The three sat in silence for a while longer.

"Do you want me to continue?" asked Rath quietly.

The other two nodded.

8.8.8

Rath was fast asleep when dawn came the next day. He was so tired…The boy had tried to run after his father for three hours straight, but his two small, four-year-old legs couldn't carry him as far, or as fast as a trained nomad horse's four legs. When he realized this, the boy had cried for an hour before falling fast asleep.

A small bird landed on the sleeping child's head, chirping loudly. It was loud enough to wake him.

He opened his eyes slowly, wondering why there was something warm on his head.

"Oh hello…" he said drowsily. "I wonder what's for breakfast…"

He sat up, sending the bird flying away, and looked around. He stared in confusion at his surroundings for about a second before he remembered last night.

He felt tears welling up in his eyes again, and before they could spill out, Rath wiped them away, and bit his lip.

_I'm not going to cry. I'm the son of the Silver Wolf. I am Rath of the Kutolah. I am of Sacae! I'm not going to cry!_

He stood up, and heard his stomach rumble with hunger. As a small child, Rath, like many other children had a voracious appetite, and alone on the plains, with only the clothes on his back…he didn't know what to do.

"I should catch something…" he said aloud to himself. _But with what?_ He could make small traps; however, he had always had his father help him make them.

_Maybe I could use a bow and hunt something…_But Rath didn't have a bow, and he didn't know how to hunt. He was only four years old.

Rath felt tears in his eyes again.

"I'm not going to cry!" he shouted at himself, wiping them away angrily.

As he brushed his face with his sleeve, Rath noticed a mouse on the ground.

Mice were edible, he supposed. Not much meat on them…but he was hungry, so anything would probably do right now.

"Hah!" he shouted, jumping at the mouse, trying to catch it. The tiny grey rodent scurried through the grass to get away from him.

Undaunted, the four-year old chased right after it.

After five minutes of pointlessly chasing the mouse around, not only was Rath hungry, he was tired now to boot.

He sat down.

_I'm so hungry…_he thought morosely to himself. He looked up at the blue, blue sky.

_Father Sky,_ he thought quietly. _You won't let me die out here, will you? I don't want to die…_

As he sat thinking, Rath noticed a rustle in the grass.

_A mouse_.

He didn't move a muscle. He'd learned as he was chasing that other mouse that mice were very easily frightened, and they were fast too. If he wanted to catch it, he'd have to take it by surprise.

Slowly, Rath lowered himself onto his belly, and crawled towards the source of the noise as quietly as he could.

He'd seen a wolf once hunting a rabbit, or something like that. It had stayed low to the ground, and had snuck up slowly on its prey…and then it had pounced, quick as lightning onto the rabbit, or whatever it had been.

The tall grass of the plains kept Rath well hidden, and his brown Sacaean clothing was made for blending in.

He followed the sound of the rustling with his eyes. When he judged that it was close enough, he pounced, just like the wolf.

Surprisingly, on Rath's first try, he hadn't caught just a mouse. He caught a very large rabbit. After a short scuffle with the long-eared creature, the four-year-old managed to snap its neck.

Now…how was he going to cook it…?

8.8.8

"Hold on!" said Guy, stopping Rath. "You can't mean to say that it took you just five minutes, on your first day to figure out how to hunt!"

The boy looked absolutely incredulous, yet Rath's face was unchanged.

"I shortened the story. I went hungry for the first month. Mainly eating bugs," said Rath calmly.

"Bugs?" echoed Guy disgusted.

"Ants, beetles…whatever I could find…"

"Well, go on Rath," said Lyn encouragingly, "What happened after that?"

"It took me a week after to figure out how to make a good camp-fire, so I ate the first rabbit raw."

"Why did you not make a campfire before that?" asked Lyn surprised.

"No need…"

"…Oh…"

8.8.8

It had been three months since his abandonment on the plains. Rath no longer needed to worry about food, and considering that he was four-years-old, he was doing quite well on the plains by himself. However Rath was hungry. Hungry for human contact...

It had been three months since he'd seen another living human soul. And sometimes he felt that he'd almost forgotten how to talk. He longed to hear the sound of a voice different from his own. The vast emptiness of the plains was stifling to the child. He was lonely. He'd tried talking to himself, making an imaginary friend, communing with the spirits…but none of it really worked. He craved real human contact, although Sue was a very nice friend…

_Mother Earth…_he thought one night as he added more twigs to his small fire. _If you really do care for all your children…why did you leave me all alone out here? Father Sky…if you really are watching…please…let someone find me…_

That night, Rath had set up his small little camp beneath a tree. Looking up at the tree, he made a decision.

_I'll make a bow._

Standing up, the small Sacaean boy began to try and climb the tree. Unfortunately, he was far too short to reach the lowest branch, much less find a foot-hold.

Yet Rath didn't give up. Pulling out the small make-shift knife he'd created himself from strips of his clothing and a rock, he began to hack away at the trunk of the tree.

His idea, although a good one, would take the four year old three years to cut down that tree, if he continued to go like that. But sometime during the night, a rather large branch fell from the tree saving young Rath much grief.

For the next four weeks, Rath managed to carve himself a bow, albeit one without a bow-string. Frankly, the bow was terrible, and even if it did have a bow-string, it wouldn't work, but the four-year-old was immensely proud of it. The little Sacaean boy still found use for his non-functional bow. Although it was supposed to be a bow, it worked surprisingly well as a club.

8.8.8

When Rath was six-years old, he had his first encounter with another human being for the first time since his abandonment.

There were two people and a horse, a man and his wife probably. They looked funny to Rath. One was dressed like a proper Sacaean ranger…but the woman wore strange foreign clothes.

"Look Sue…" he whispered, glancing behind at his imaginary friend. "It's somebody…"

Sue nodded sagely.

"You should say hello…." She said disappearing into the distance.

Yeah. Sue was right. He should.

"HAAAA!!" shouted Rath, waving a hand at them. It had been so long since he'd last spoken aloud that his voice sounded hoarse and strange to himself.

The horse wheeled towards him and Rath found himself feeling scared. What should he do? What should he say?

"Hello there little one," said the woman kindly, looking down from the horse at him.

"What brings you out here by yourself?" She was holding a little girl on her lap …

Rath stared at her. She sounded funny…like she had a strange accent of some sort…

"I…I'm R-Rath…" he managed to say, unsure of himself.

"Pleasure to meet you Rath," said the woman smiling.

"Rath of which tribe?" asked the man, coming around.

The six-year old boy was at a loss for words. He didn't know who he was anymore. Ever since his abandonment, the words of his father stuck in his head.

_You are no longer Rath of the Kutolah…_

_But I am…I __**am**__!! I haven't changed at all. I'm still Rath of the Kutolah, son of the Silver Wolf. _ He thought earnestly, but his mouth said something different.

"Rath of Sacae," he heard himself say.

The man laughed at that.

"Well then, Rath of Sacae. I'm Hassar of Sacae," he chuckled.

"And I'm Madelyn of Lycia," said the woman. "Where are your parents?"

He made a vague gesture in the direction he thought he'd come from. It was the wrong one, and both Madelyn and Hassar noticed it instantly.

Unfortunately, Rath even at the age of six still didn't know left from right. There was no need to know really, one hand was very much the same as the other.

"Are you here by yourself?" asked Madelyn.

Rath shook his head. He had Sue, didn't he? True Sue didn't really exist, but it meant that he wasn't alone, right?

"Are you sure about that? There's no one around here for miles…" said Hassar concernedly.

Rath shook his head again.

"Sue's here. She just went off for a bit…" said Rath, his voice straining.

The Sacaean man nodded half to himself, and half to Rath.

"Well, it was nice meeting you Rath…here," said the man handing a small dagger and sheathe to the six-year-old.

"Hassar!" said his wife shocked. "A weapon to a child?!"

"It's alright!" he laughed, "the lad's a warrior, right Rath?"

Rath nodded. That's what the diviner and father had said…

"You take care of yourself now…"

Rath nodded again in silence.

"Thank you…May Father Sky and Mother Earth watch over you and your family…" he said in thanks.

"And may they watch over you Rath," smiled Hassar before leading the horse past Rath and deeper into Sacae, past the Bernese border. But Rath didn't know that. He was only six-years-old.

8.8.8

"H-Hold on…" said Lyn, her voice trembling. "D-Did you say that the man's name was Hassar, and his wife's name was Madelyn, and they were from Lycia?"

Rath nodded.

"And they had a little girl with them?"

He nodded.

"She was younger than I was…perhaps two or three…"

"My father's name was Hassar, and my mother was Madelyn…" said Lyn awestruck.

"WHOA!!" said Guy, sitting back in surprise. "You met her, and her mom and her dad?!??" he said incredulously.

Rath shrugged indifference.

"He was a man of Sacae, and the first person who talked to me besides Sue…"

"Your imaginary friend, right…"

"No." said Rath. "My daughter."

"WHAT?"

"I decided that on the day I created Sue, that if I would ever have a daughter, her name would be Sue."

"And if it's a boy?"

"Shinn."

Guy looked at him warily.

"I-isn't that the name of your horse?"

Rath nodded.

"You'd name your kid after your horse???"

Lyn looked at the Sacaean nomad seated in front of her, with a new understanding. When she had first met him, she'd thought she noticed the same knowledge of loneliness in him…How wrong she was. He had been far lonelier than she could ever have imagined. Lost and alone as a child, growing up in the world, having to wait two years to meet another living soul…

"Go on Rath…what happened at the border?"

"I went to Bern… I spent maybe two or three years there…"

8.8.8

"Out of the way! Filthy child!!" shouted a man charging down the road on horseback.

The eight-year-old Sacaean boy wasn't fast enough to get out of the way, and was sent sprawling into the mud.

He slowly got up on his feet, and wiped the mud off of his face. He'd been in Bern for two years now, and still, he felt lost in this country. There were plenty of people and things in Bern…but Rath felt more alone in here than on the plains. It had been easier dealing with the absence of a human presence, rather than an absence of humanity. People ignored him here. When he tried to talk to anybody, they'd chase him off with insults, or blows.

He found out as he got a bit older that the people of Bern considered him and all the other Sacaeans not as people, but as animals, unworthy of their time or business. Especially a child like Rath.

Cities were filled with orphans he'd found out. The orphans of Bern traveled in packs, playing and stealing in the streets of the city. They did not take kindly to outsiders…especially Rath. Every time they saw him, they'd mock him, calling him names, and making a mockery of the spirits. The last time had only been this morning, and he'd gotten into a fight with them. It turned out that Rath had a very keen eye for weakness and an almost otherworldly awareness on a battle field. He took care to always know how many people were around him, and how they were positioned. The knife Hassar had given him, although old and worn from use, was his trusted weapon and never far from his hand.

Running a hand through his long mud-caked hair, Rath wondered when he would help 'stop the burning' he'd been told he'd do. Maybe all it meant that he'd help put out a fire or something…

At the age of eight, Rath had become a master of sarcasm…not that he ever said anything sarcastically. There was no one for him to talk to. He had long since stopped talking to Sue, though he always envisioned her standing in the corner of his eye. He couldn't give an accurate description of his imaginary friend. If anyone would ever ask, he'd simply say she's a girl of the Kutolah.

Maybe he should have gone to Bulger. It was said there that both Sacaeans and Bernese people lived in harmony…or something like that.

Unfortunately, Rath didn't understand directions all too well. North, south, east and west had no meaning to him. If one was to tell him to travel north-east, it would have to be phrased as: 'From where the cold winds blow, and the sun rises.' But no one really spoke like that. So Rath ended up going further and further west, or as he would put it: 'into the sunset'.

It had made sense as a child that the burning was taking place somewhere far away, and where else but on the horizon that looked as if it was set aflame every evening? So for four years, Rath had always followed the sunset. Now slightly older, and a lot wiser, Rath recognized this thought as childish, but he had nothing else to go on. Simply living would not satisfy him.

_I don't know anything about a burning…but I seriously need a hair cut…_he thought morosely, tying his hair back, filthy as it was. He was a proud Sacaean warrior!

_Albeit a little short,_ he admitted mentally. _And unable to use a bow…_

He guessed that he should probably leave this city, wherever it was. There was nothing here for him.

"Hey! Look! It's a savage!!" shouted a child's voice, though definitely older than Rath's own.

_Great…_

In fewer than 20 seconds, Rath was surrounded by a crowd of jeering orphans of Bern.

The eight-year-old was rather unimpressed. After having been made fun of so many times, even by his own countrymen, no number of insults could make him angry. Except for one.

He didn't care if people insulted him personally, but he simply would not tolerate any insult to his people, or the spirits that he believed in.

There was no particular reason for this specific hate. Perhaps it was just in his nature as a proud warrior of the plains. Perhaps it arose from the love of his home land, and his sadness of being expelled from his tribe at a young age. Perhaps it was because, alone on the plains, with only his imaginary friend Sue for company, he felt closer to the spirits of nature than to any other human being. Perhaps he was more stubborn than he was willing to admit. Or maybe it was just a fool's pride. Rath didn't know.

Not that he thought that deeply. He was eight-years-old. His main thoughts pertaining to those insults were mainly insults.

_Stupid jerks…_ he thought, getting ready for a fight.

"Hey horse-boy!" shouted one child.

_I don't even __**have**__ a horse…Why does everyone believe all Sacaean's have horses?_

"Show us a savage dance! Ooga Booga!!" laughed the child, beside himself with hilarity.

Rath didn't understand. He'd left the tribe too young to know what the children were making a mockery of. In fact, he didn't even know what 'ooga booga' was supposed to mean.

"Come on! Show us a dance horse-boy!" shouted the other children, circling around him. That usually meant that there was going to be a beating.

He laid a hand on the hilt of his knife. His eyes searching his surrounding. There were five in total. He could take them… Two in front, three behind…

"YAAAHHHHHH!!!" he shouted charging at them knife drawn, his cloth moccasins barely making a noise against the hard stone road.

* * *

**So... the Ooga Booga thing. Reference: Karla/ Farina support. As to where in Elibe Rath could be... Some random place in Bern near Bulgar, but not really.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Well, lookee here... I'm actually updating on a semi-regular basis. Unfortunately, because of that, this is about all I have written up to this point...But not to worry! (i think) I will do plenty of writing as soon as I can...which will probably be during class... But I'm not supposed to...but no matter! For you, my most esteemed readers, I will go through the most fiery depths of hell to bring you updates!! Or not... -- Something I think Sain would say, or even Nikolai from Luminous Arc...**

**Disclaimer: **

**I do not own Fire Emblem, Rath, Lyn, Guy, Legault, Uhai, Dayan, or even Sue or Mark at all. If I did, in FE6 they would have given us more Orion Bolts so that Sue wouldn't be stuck as a level 20 ranger for the entire game... though Shinn did have maxed out strength, Sue was prettier... Then again, everyone was prettier than Shinn, Treck and Gonzales... **

* * *

"You killed them?!!" interrupted Guy horrified. 

Rath shook his head.

"No. I scared them off," he looked at Guy with a mixed expression.

"There was no way I could beat them. I was just a child…"

Guy hunched his shoulders defensively. Knowing Rath's current skills and his parentage, Guy had kind of expected him to be some sort of super-kid or something…Guy admired the Sacaean ranger. His ability to always know his surroundings, the number of enemies in the field, what Mark had told them to do…the speed he could fire arrows off.

Speaking of arrows…

"Wait, how did you become such a good archer if your first bow was a piece of junk?"

"A bow does not make an archer, same as a sword does not make a sword master," said Rath calmly.

"Don't pull the poetic philosophy stuff on me. That's the shaman's job!!"

Rath drew a stick from the fire, and stared at it for a while.

"I had a teacher…if only for a while…" he said pensively, "I met him…maybe six, seven years ago…"

"Who was he? What was he like?" asked Lyn, making herself comfortable near the fire.

"That's later in the story…"

"Then skip some of that, and get to the part when you met your teacher!" said Guy exasperatedly.

"…"

"Please?" added Guy as an afterthought.

"I would have to cut out how I met Shinn…" said Rath, with a tiny hint of reluctance in his usually emotionless voice.

Guy traded looks with Lyn.

They both knew how much Rath cared for his horse… Even in the midst of battle, the ranger would look out for his horse as much as possible, once even taking a blow for him. It had been kind of implied in Mark's orders that the mounted soldiers would need to keep their mounts alive if the maneuver was going to be carried out successfully…but no one had expected Rath to take an axe swipe for the creature…

Sometimes… Lyn wondered if Rath loved his horse more than he loved her.

Well, maybe he had, seeing that she had to be the one who suggested returning to Sacae with him… In fact, now that she thought about it, she had practically proposed to Rath instead of the other way around. Actually…she did… Rath had merely nodded, and continued to take care of his horse.

It was rather ridiculous actually…to be jealous of a horse…

"Ummm…is Shinn really that much more important than your teacher?" asked Guy, tentatively.

The glare he got in return clearly said yes.

"Uh…sorry…"

8.8.8

Rath was growing up quite nicely in the wilderness between Sacae and Bern, and had slowly gotten closer and closer to the Lycian border. Now a rather tall and strong ten-year-old boy, Rath was perfectly capable of looking after himself…sort of.

It was a well known fact that the wilds between borders were usually infested with bandits, and the boy had suffered blows at the hands of such men, seeing as he was far too skinny and weak to take on three two-hundred pound, muscle packed, thugs.

Fortunately for the Sacaean boy, he had absolutely nothing of any value on him, and they'd just leave him for dead after two or three blows…from their fists, not their axes. It would be unseemly for perfectly respectable bandits such as themselves to use their axes on some unarmed child, lost and alone in the world.

Looking around the wilderness, he noticed some movement in the distance. He wondered what it could be. Wolves pulling down a deer? Carrion crows? Humans?

Sudden yells and screams informed Rath that it was quite clearly, bandits attacking a lone Sacaean ranger.

Well, he didn't know that just from the sounds, shouts of: "Get the savage!" were enough indication for the boy to know a man of Sacae was being attacked. It was after he got closer and saw the sword the Sacaean man was using did he get his conclusion of ranger. Only rangers were allowed to carry swords, like his Father had. The others were just mounted archers.

When he was little, he had wanted nothing more than to be a great archer, and eventually great ranger, just like his father. Now…he wasn't so sure.

Six years after being abandoned by the man he had admired the most in the world had changed Rath's outlook on life. With each passing year since he'd turned six, he'd become increasingly bitter, and hateful of his tribe. It was rather hypocritical of him. Hating his tribe, but being incredibly proud of his Sacaean heritage, it was despicable really…

Rath hid in the tall grass, moving as close as he dared to the battle. He wouldn't be able to help the Sacaean man. He was just a ten-year-old boy, armed with a rusty old knife, and a stick, and thus, he didn't really count as armed. The knife had grown dull with age, but it remained unbroken, except for a few nicks and scratches upon the cold steel. Very much like Rath's Sacaean spirit. However reality had to be considered. However much he wished he could help the poor man, he couldn't. There was nothing he could do.

The man was doing badly. The axe-wielding bandits were all far too close for him to shoot, and his sword had been snapped in half. Then Rath saw the man do something Rath would never have expected an archer to ever do. The man's bow had been chopped in half, leaving him with nothing but arrows as weapons. It was at that point that Rath had decided that the man was completely doomed to a rather pathetic death, having been unable to so much as lay a scratch on a single one of his opponents. When quite abruptly, a shriek of horror and pain came from one of the bandits.

Wide-eyed and genuinely shocked, Rath stared at the arrow protruding from a bandit's bloody eye socket. The man was using the arrows as if they were knives, jabbing them every which way, and stabbing wildly at his assailants.

It was watching this that Rath began to think that maybe that man had a chance…until an axe blow straight to the chest knocked the man off of his horse.

Rath watched in horrified silence as the bandits began to ransack the ranger's belongings, and having found absolutely nothing of value, left… strangely leaving the horse behind.

_Well…all of them are so fat, maybe none of them would've been able to sit on the horse…_

When Rath was absolutely sure that the bandits had left, he ran over to the ranger's corpse…or supposed corpse. The man was very much still alive, though not for much longer.

"W…Water…" rasped the man, as Rath came out from the grass.

Without missing a beat, Rath went and found the man's water skin. There wasn't much in it… and it seemed like the bandits had stepped on it as they were leaving.

Treading carefully so as not to step on any snapped arrowheads, or gobs of raw flesh, Rath made his way back to the man, and held the flask to his mouth.

The man coughed and sputtered as he tried to down the liquid, causing most of what little water there was, to splash onto his shirt.

"T-thank you…" sighed the man, looking up at Rath with glassy eyes. "I'm glad…" he said, looking up at Rath's face.

"I'm glad they didn't…find you…" whispered the man.

Rath stared at him wordlessly. Had he known? He'd known that he'd been there the entire time, hiding away in the grass?

"A man of Sacae proudly defends his own…" gasped the man in pain, wincing from the enormous cut across his chest.

"His…his name is Shinn…" whispered the man as he died right there. Rath stared at the dead Sacaean man's face for a long moment. He did not shed a single tear. He just stared at him. It had been so long since he had felt anything other than hunger. So long since he had spoken to another…

Rath opened his mouth to say something, when he realized something terrible. The man was dead… and he felt nothing. He felt nothing for this dead man lying in front of him, his broken body soaked in his own blood.

"…"

He should at least bury him, and say a prayer… that would be the right thing to do… wasn't it?

8.8.8

Guy had been fidgeting the entire time since Rath had glared at him. Now, Rath decided to acknowledge the younger man's frustrations.

"What?"

"Are you going to get to your teacher yet?"

Rath stared at him blankly for a few moments, before closing his eyes and saying.

"I suppose I'll skip a couple years of pointless wandering and unending loneliness…"

"Was it really that hard to be out there by yourself?"

Rath looked at Guy, his face expressionless.

"Imagine a city. A big city, full of life and laughter…You're standing right there amidst the huge crowd, and then someone knocks you down while rushing past."

"No one notices, no one cares. It's as if you don't exist at all. You realize that you don't belong here. If you were to disappear from the world, it would seem as if nothing has happened. Everyone and everything just passes you by, never seeing you. You realize, as you stand there, it's no different than standing all by yourself in the plains with no one around you. Like the creatures of the plain, none care if you live or die. In fact no one needs you to exist at all in the first place… You come to the realization that your existence is unnecessary, that no one needs you to exist. No one cares about you, and you don't matter to anyone in the world at all."

Guy stared amazed at what Rath had said… or more of that Rath was talking more than he'd ever heard him talk before in his life.

"That's… that's horrible…" breathed Guy, before going right on to say: "So, about your teacher…"

8.8.8

It was cold and wet, and Legault was feeling absolutely miserable. It wasn't that he minded the weather, it was more of what he had to _do _in that weather. Brendan had sent him and Uhai to deal with a bunch of bandits. Why Brendan had sent _him_ of all people to go rushing about, waving a sword like an idiot was beyond Legault's comprehension. He was an _assassin_.

You know, the sleazy looking guy in the back who slips a knife between your ribs when you least expect it. The recently hired waiter who accidentally pours a deadly poison into your drink. The man who you just met, and three seconds ago, he swiped your wallet and stabbed you in the gut. That kind of assassin.

If Brendan wanted some lousy bandits killed, why didn't he just send his sons, Lloyd or Linus? Heck, why didn't he send Pascal? _That_ would set those bandits straight… And even if he didn't want to send Pascal anywhere near civilians, Uhai would be able to deal with a few bandits all by himself. The Sacaean ranger was a great fighter... or at least, he should be...

"Legault."

The purple-haired teenager sighed, scratching his head.

"Yes, I know, I'm ready…"

"…You are not happy to be doing this."

Well, how could you possibly tell? thought the thief sarcastically.

"Should I be? Is that a requirement when one is to go about slicing and dicing, hmmm?"

"…"

"Oh come on, you're honestly no fun Uhai," sighed Legault, straightening his bandanna.

"Brendan gave you this job as a favor."

"Oh, a favor was it? Did he know that the weather would be as miserable as Jan is with a toothache?" grumbled the young man, irritably, rubbing his head from the cuff their leader had given him for 'insubordination'.

"Would you prefer having to kill Trey?" said Uhai quietly.

Legault's head whipped up to look at the Sacaean man in surprise.

"I…he…He wouldn't…" stammered Legault for a few seconds before he calmed himself.

"I suppose he did…Idiot. He knows the laws," he said shaking his head. "Well, guess it can't be helped… So, where are those bandits skulking about?"

Uhai shrugged.

Well, the people of Sacae told no lies…

"Very well, I suppose I'll go look for them…" he sighed, and with that, the young thief dashed off into the woods.

* * *

**Okay, so ending with the Legault bit and the mention of his job as the cleaner...my reasons being: **

**A. Legault is funny. Actually, he's kind of fun to write, what with his rather odd sense of humour.**

**B. Uhai can't be by himself. These are the Old days of the Black Fang. I think. Nino may be 14, but she will always, be 8 in my head. And Rath's pretty old...not really, but in comparison... **  
**C. I really, really wanted to do that description about assassins. **


End file.
